I was really down on the last few drafts... but this is the year. We have not even started hearing about the internationals and the NCAA players alone are good enough to make this a multiple future all-star draft.

If there ever was a time for the Sixers to acquire a pick in the 5-8 range this year is it. And if Drummond somehow slides down into that range because of other players emerging then it would be tremendous opportunity to get a Bynum-like center.

And how would the sixers go about obtaining a pick in the 5-8 range. They don't really have the assets to obtain such a pick. It's clear to many that this is a deep quality draft so the picks will have more value. The young guys that the sixers would offer like Nikola and Evan have not really shown enough to be picks in the 5-8.

Yes, it would be a great time for the sixers to get a pick in the top 10, but aside from a massive losing streak, I don't believe they have the assets to get one in a mediocre draft let along a good one

I was hoping that John Henson would slip down to #16 earlier this year but it seems like we'll have a bottom 20 pick. I would be willing to trade Turner or Lou along with Vuc and Lavoy for a lottery pick. I would to take on a bad contract just to get a lottery pick. Anyway, IMO Drummund is a top 3 pick.

you know, good ol' speights. maybe he had things more figured out than i originally thought. he knew what his game was and what he could and couldn't do as a basketball player. what collins wanted him to do, that wasn't his game. so, he was happy being the best team cheerleader they had until thorn found a nice new home for him. i don't really see what the sixers can do with two 2nd round picks, but from mo's side, he played it beautifully. good for him. i think it's a problem sometimes, at the nba level, when a coach tries to mold a player's abilities into an existing system rather than recognizing what they're already good at and finding space within the system for them to flourish at that. doug has heart, passion, grit, and all of the qualities of a great leader whom you would want to follow into battle. i'm gonna call it like i see it though, and say that he is not, however, the best of coaches. watching him during a game, it looks like his brain is working a mile a minute. i think doug over-analyzes everything, and consequently, the guy is a bundle of nerves waiting to explode. i think this is why his decisions sometimes seem erratic and confound some of us. we're in front of tvs/monitors, safely playing coach without the pressures of an in-game situation (whatchya call it, armchair quaterbacking), and from our calm vantage point we know what doug needs to do and isn't doing. i think there's some truth in that, which isn't me saying that i know basketball better than doug collings, because i most certainly do not, but it is me saying that maybe doug needs to relax a bit more during games. no, he's not getting thrown out of games for his temper and what not, that's not what i mean. it's in his face, he's twitchy. there's so much going on in that skull of his and he can't slow it down. do more yoga doug.

Grizz 13-9 since Speights was inserted as starter in Game 9 (3-5 until then). Has chipped in to team cause (spottily), helped fill rebounding gap left by Randolph injury/absence. Needed to get away from Doug, who's a basketball "purist" - and a nemisis to some.

They are trying to turn lemons into lemon-aid, and there will always be major trade-offs when you are trying to maximize wins from this type of roster.

At this point I am fine with these trade-offs because the players important to their future are all getting PT (if not as much as some would like.) And I think it is teaching them some lessons about winning and ball protection that will help them develop into better pros.

I'm expecting that each of these players will gradually earn a longer leash as they gain further experience. It is the same for any on the job apprenticeship. You start be putting strict limits on what someone is allowed to do and then let them freelance more as they become more accomplished.

If you are teaching someone to play guitar you don't have them free-form jamming their first week. You have them learn to master some "boring" basics that they can rely on and it will give them the foundation to be more free and creative later on.

The list that Steve wrote above is correct except that Wall was picked after Hayward by Barkley, not first. Shaq picked 1st and had every odd pick; Barkley had every even pick (not exactly fair). So the order was Blake, Irving, Lin, Cousins, etc. As someone else noted, the last four players (two on each team) were not "drafted" but assigned by random draw.

Korver is atrocious. Considering their respective contracts, I'd prefer Meeks hands down, and I can't stand Meeks as is well documented. If I had a choice I'd take neither, but Korver is one of the worst players in the NBA imo.

Meeks will be lucky to have half the career that Korver has had. Haven't watched a ton of CHI ball this year, but hard for me to believe he still isn't a useful player if put in positions where he can be successful. Always liked Korver, about 1000 times more than I like Jodie.